Discrimination and Stereotypes

Discrimination and Stereotypes

HARASSMENT ​​We asked respondents about the amount of physical aggression or verbal harassment experienced at school and in the workplace from a 1-5 scale (with 1 = None and 5 = Significant Harassment). It appears that men are more likely to experience harassment in school, with 85% reporting that they experienced some level of harassment. Only 39% of men reported experiencing such harassment in the workplace. We don't have details on the kinds of harassment they might have experienced, but this is a good opportunity to follow up in future research. These results are in line with what we found in our research in 2015.

STEREOTYPES OVERVIEW​One of major findings of our study, both from 2015 and 2016 results is just how prevalent stereotypes are in defining the experience of Asian American men. Given that stereotypes can vary, we present this year's data by sub-ethnicity. Overall, 97% of men reported jokes, insults or otherwise being made uncomfortable by at least one of our list of 17 stereotypes.

STEREOTYPES OF EAST ASIAN MEN

The top five stereotypes experienced by East Asian men were being good at math (79%), being good with computers (72%) and having a small penis (69%), having slanted eyes (65%), and having kung fu / martial arts skills (58%). ​

STEREOTYPES OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN MEN

​​The top five stereotypes experience by Southeast Asian men were having a small penis (69%), being good at math (67%), being quiet / shy (67%), being good with computers (64%), and having kung fu / martial arts abilities (56%). Also worth noting is that being effeminate and being homosexual were rated significantly higher for Southeast Asian men than by East Asian men (43% vs 35% and 30% vs 15%)

STEREOTYPES FOR SOUTH ASIAN MEN

​​The top five stereotypes experienced by South Asian men were being good with computers (71%), being labeled a terrorist (67%), not being a "real" American (61%), being good at math (59%), and being undesirable as a romantic partner (53%). It's notable that the stereotype of being a terrorist did not appear above 10% in either East, or Southeast Asian men.

"WHERE ARE YOU FROM?"

​A common occurrence for many non-white people is being asked "Where are you from?" by strangers, colleagues, and acquaintances. Often this question is posed as a way to determine the other person's country of origin or ethnic roots. Overall, about 84% of Asian American men have been asked "Where are you from?" or "What nationality are you?" or a similar ethnicity related question in the last three months.

When breaking this analysis down into the three sub-ethnicities of East, Southeast, and South Asian men, we found that nearly all (98.4%) of South Asian men had been asked such a question in the last three months, with 30% being asked more than 6 times, a statistically significant increase over other groups. Only 16% of East Asian men were asked "Where are you from?" more than 6 times over the same period.

To understand more about the "Where are you from?" question, we asked respondents to answer how they felt about being asked this question. The responses were given free form, but later coded into three categories: Positive, Neutral/Mixed, Negative. Some examples:

Positive response: "I like it because it shows acknowledging my background and interest in finding who I am."

Neutral or mixed response: "That people want to know what Asian country I have roots in" or "Indifferent"

Negative response: "Uncomfortable" or "Alienated" or "Wary, at first. Annoyed, othered if they keep pushing ("No, where are you really from?")"

Based on this coding, we found that overall, 81% of men had a neutral/mixed or negative response to being asked "Where are you from?" This trend held roughly constant across different sub-ethnicities, income levels, ages, geographies, and whether they were born in the US, Asia, or elsewhere.

UPHOLDING TRADITIONAL VALUES

Given that Asia is the largest continent from a geographic and population perspective, it can be difficult to define with "traditional Asian values" mean in specific terms like "commitment to family" or "hard work". However, we have found it worthwhile to ask how strongly men feel the need to uphold traditional Asian values in their own lives.

We reviewed the data and in 2016, we found that while the men 35 and older were directionally more likely to respond "Agree" or "Strongly Agree" compared to those younger, there was not the same statistical significance found in our 2015 results. It's not clear exactly what drives this but one possibility is we had nearly twice as many men over 35 years old—response from a larger population can reduce / smooth out differences between two groups.